Entertainment
In 2024, progress in streaming profitability and renewed deal talk helped the stocks of some Hollywood conglomerates. In 2025, mega-deals materialized, but questions about the sustainability of streaming profit gains, pressure on cable networks, which were once the sector’s huge profit engine, and the rise of AI caused investor worries.
The U.S. stock market rose in 2025, with the broad-based S&P 500 stock index up 17.5 percent for the year, from 5881.63 at the end of 2024, but media and entertainment and related stocks provided a mixed picture.
So, what is the outlook for 2026? “Long-term, we see generative AI as the most consequential force reshaping the entertainment ecosystem,” Morgan Stanley analyst Benjamin Swinburne said in his preview report for the new year. “It is simultaneously a catalyst for faster product innovation and margin expansion, and a source of genuine uncertainty for management teams navigating the potential impacts on audience behavior, IP monetization, and competitive intensity.”
But he also sees two other key trends beyond “the looming impact of AI driving investor sentiment and ultimately earnings growth.” They are “continued streaming market repair, including through industry consolidation,” and “robust growth in both advertising revenues and consumer spending on premium entertainment experiences.”
With that said, how did 2025 shape up for media, entertainment, and related stocks? Fox Corp., Imax, Roku, and Spotify were among key outperformers over the past year, while Netflix shares edged up only slightly for a change, as investors tried to dissect what a move into more traditional Hollywood operations via the takeover of Warner Bros. will mean for the company, its business, and its stock.
Netflix, currently in the spotlight with its deal for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD)’s Warner Bros., rose 5.7 percent from $89.13 at the close of 2024 as it ended trading on Dec. 29 at $94.15.
Among Hollywood giants, WBD shares, which closed at $28.79 on Monday, jumped 172 percent as 2025 gets set to wrap, from $10.57 at the close of 2024. That was fueled by deal talk and followed by an actual deal. In comparison, Paramount Skydance, with its hostile and competing bid for WBD, saw its stock rise just over 29 percent so far in 2025 after closing at $13.50 on Dec. 29. And Walt Disney, whose stock closed at $114.19 on Monday, is set to end the year near to where it started, with its stock up just 2.25 percent from $110.43 at close of 2024.
That’s as Fox Corp. has its stock, which closed at $73.81 on Monday, set to end 2025 on a 52 week-high and up 47.3 percent year-to-date from $48.58 at the close of 2024. In contrast, Comcast, ahead of the separation of its Versant cable networks business, saw its shares close on Dec. 29 at $29.87, down around 20 percent from $37.53 in value at the close of 2024. And Sony Corp. had its own one year share price run as its shares, which closed at $25.70 on Monday, enjoyed a 21 percent rally from opening 2025 at $21.26.
Among smaller entertainment companies, AMC Networks, in its third year under CEO Kristin Dolan, ended the year where it began, closing at $9.83 on Dec. 29, down just under 1 percent from opening 2025 at $9.95. And after a corporate split, stock in Lionsgate Studios, which ended Monday at $9.43, rose around 24 percent year-to-date from $7.60 at the close of 2024, while Starz Entertainment shares soared by just over 42 percent to close at $11.86 on Dec. 29, after launching as a standalone stock at $8.00 in early May.
Meanwhile, UFC and WWE owner TKO Group closed on Monday at $216.11, up 52 percent from opening 2025 at $142.25. Among cinema stocks, which remain a topic of debate after a recent report from management consulting firm Bain & Co. suggested ways to lure audiences back to movie theaters, Imax Corp. is just off its 52-week high for its stock after closing Dec. 29 at $37.45, and staging a year-to-date rally of just over 46 percent after the company’s shares closed 2024 at $25.60.
Shares in Cinemark Holdings had a roller coaster ride in 2025, as they closed at $23.11 on Monday, down around 25.4 percent from $30.98 as of the end of 2024. And AMC Theatres-parent AMC Entertainment Holdings saw its shares, which closed on Dec. 29 at $1.63, plunge 59 percent in value year-to-date from standing at $3.98 at the end of 2024.
And a related stock, Sphere Entertainment, drew praise in 2025 by showing The Wizard of Oz‘s attractive unit economics. The company’s stock, which closed at $93.19 on Monday, was rewarded with a 131 percent rise from $40.32 at the end of 2024.
Elsewhere, music and audio entertainment stocks danced to different tunes in 2025. Warner Music Group shares after closing at $30.22 on Dec. 29, year-to-date fell 2.5 percent after opening 2025 at $31.17. And shares in the Amsterdam-listed stock of Universal Music Group also had a downwards trajectory, closing on Monday at EURO 22.06 ($25.97), which was off 9.3 percent on the year after opening 2025 at EURO 24.32.
It was upwards for streaming giant Spotify in 2025, after its stock closed at $581.19 on Monday, up 27 percent from $447.38 at the end of 2024. Meanwhile, shares in iHeartMedia ended Dec. 29 at $4.22, up 109 percent year-to-date after opening 2025 at $2.02. And satellite radio giant SiriusXM, which sealed a new three-year Howard Stern deal late in the year, saw its stock price fall by just under 11 percent so far in 2025 after closing on Monday at $20.33.
Among gaming stocks, Electronic Arts, which is set to go private in a mega-deal, has had a 40 percent year-to-date rally for its shares, which closed Monday at $204.27. That performance was mirrored at Take-Two Interactive Software, where its stock closed Dec. 29 at $255.70, and with a year-to-date rise of 39 percent.
Among other media and entertainment stocks, Roku shares, which closed on Monday at $111.24, have risen year-to-date by just under 50 percent, while Alphabet, owner YouTube, of one of the big winners in terms of growth and positive headlines in 2025, enjoyed a steady rise as its stock opened the year at $190.65, and closed Monday at $313.56.
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Georg Szalai